Archive for March, 2011

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If You Build It…

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Today’s blog post comes from Charon Gaskins, an AmeriCorps member with HandsOn Network.

For  as long as I can remember, I’ve been doing community service.  In college, I joined a community service sorority, Gamma Sigma Sigma National Service Sorority.  As a member of this sorority I sought after a variety of service projects for my chapter to complete, I never thought about organizing our own projects.

It could have been because I was in college, taking a full load while still being active on campus, planning a project just didn’t seem like something that was easy to do.  Flash forward a few years later and here I am planning my own community service projects!  Through working with the GetHandsOn Campaign, I’ve been able to test out several of the project playbooks.

With the help of the resources I’ve found on the website, I’ve successfully organized several different projects in my community.  From a snack and learn with elementary students to tilling the land and potting seeds for a community garden, this has been an amazing experience.

I was invited to speak to a group of 3rd and 4th grade students about what community service is.  From that discussion, I had the students identify three areas where they were interested in doing community service.  The group of students stated they wanted to work with senior citizens, so from there I worked to find a local senior facility for them to service at.

The excitement these students had while working with these seniors was heartwarming, and the seniors were so excited to have a group of youth come to visit them.  I was told the students began bugging their teacher about their next service project on the way home from that project!

My most recent project was helping in a garden in the Atlanta area.  There was a lot of maintenance this garden needed, because over the years they lost a lot of their volunteers.  However, there is still a community of people that depend on this garden for fresh foods.

Using social media and making announcements in our different circles, we were able to get about 35 people out in the hot sun ready to work. We tilled about two acres of land and potted over 300 seeds   The volunteers for this project ranged from the ages of 13-60 years and everyone walked away from the project excited about coming back to actually plant the seeds in the garden in late April.

One of the volunteers at the garden was actually someone that receives food from the garden and though she is suffering from lupus, she wanted to help out in whatever way that she could.  It’s stories like this that keeps me motivated, doing everything in my power to leave a community changed by my presence.

I’ve had the opportunity to create several projects that focus on different areas and get my friends and family interesting in doing more service.  Several times a week I get a call about a group that is interesting in doing community service, or someone has an idea about a project that they want to do but need some help making it happen.

Working with the GetHandsOn campaign has been one of my greatest joys because it has given me the opportunity to really work with people in the community that want to make a change.  There are people that want to change things in their community but maybe sometimes it just seems so unattainable.

The truth is making a difference in your community doesn’t have to be some huge endeavor; it can be just one or two hrs.  If you are looking for ways to get involved in service check out Get HandsOn or HandsOn Network’s Action Centers for opportunities in your area!

Charon serves as an AmeriCorps National Direct member.  She is a member of Gamma Sigma Sigma National Service Sorority.  She is based in Atlanta, Ga. where she is active in the West End Community.

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Posted in Environment, Equip, Volunteer Recruitment, Volunteering | No Comments »

On the Tragic Loss of Sara Ballard

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Written by Amy Smith, President of HandsOn Network.

By now some of you have probably heard the tragic news that Sara Ballard, Executive Director of the Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason and Thurston Counties (VCLMT) passed away yesterday after suffering a stroke caused by a blood clot in her lung. Today, our thoughts are with Sara’s family, staff, board of directors and with each of you as we reflect on this great loss for Washington state and for our entire Network.

Since hearing of Sara’s passing we have been in contact with their office, with their State Association Chair Jacques Livingston and with Tara Smith from Seattle Works to offer our support and condolences.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Sara for the first time about four years ago when she was the chair of the Volunteer Centers of Washington and at the time I was the Western Regional VP for HandsOn Network.  I had come to Washington to learn more about the work of the state association there and provide an update on the work on HandsOn.

I vividly remember that meeting and Sara’s passion for her work shining throughout the conversation.  In all my interactions with Sara since then she has been a consistent and passionate advocate for service, volunteering, and giving back in communities.  Sara’s passing is a loss to the state of Washington and to the entire Network.

The Olympian has a reflection on Sara’s incredible life and accomplishments that you can read here.  You can read a tribute to Sara’s life and work at the Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason and Turston Counties’ website.

Posted in Volunteerism | 5 Comments »

Connecting Rural and Urban Communities

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Food helps to build community.

There’s something about sharing a meal that helps you to connect to someone.

When family and friends come for a visit during holidays, there’s nearly always a large meal that brings everyone together to share food and stories.

Food is starting to bring people together in a different way, though. People are beginning to realize the importance of locally grown food; both from an environmental and fiscal standpoint.

More and more, people are seeking out opportunities to volunteer at farms near where they live. Just like any other volunteer opportunity, the volunteers’ motivations vary. They could have a connection to farming, they might be passionate about food and local agriculture, or they might just want to get out from behind their desk and stick their hands in some soil on the weekend.

Crop Mobs have been springing up across the country, bringing together landless farmers with farmers willing to share their knowledge and who need some help on their land. The first Crop Mob came together in North Carolina in late 2008 and they’re .

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) started in England in 1971 by a small group of people eager to leave the city for the countryside, and who wanted to support the growing organic food movement. Nearly forty years later, there are WWOOF organizations in fifty countries around the world.

Groups like Crop Mob and WWOOF help to bridge the gap between urban and rural communities. They bring urban dwellers into rural areas to help build and support rural farmers, and those farmers help people to understand the impact and importance of buying food that has traveled short distances to get to their tables.

 

Have you volunteered with a Crop Mob or with WWOOF? Do you participate in another program that brings together rural and urban communities? Tell us about it in the comments!

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Sandy and Her Students BE BIG in Albuquerque

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Today’s post comes from Sandy Warrick, a Scholastic 2010 Be Big Contest winner.

Every school year, I teach students the difference between wants and needs. The children know that people need food, water, clothing and shelter.  Everything else falls into the category of wants.

In 2002, my class and I were talking about having a gift exchange for the holidays. One of my students stated that we were fortunate enough to have everything we needed and asked if we could do something for people that needed something instead of buying things that we wanted.

The class agreed.

They wanted to build a house for someone, but knew they didn’t have the skills to do that!  They considered clothing, but knew there were many places in town providing this service. They decided they wanted to bring in food.  They knew what it felt like to be hungry and couldn’t imagine what it must be like for people who were hungry all the time.

I found out that citizens made generous donations of food to The Storehouse, our local food bank, but the shelves for baby food were always empty.  People do not think about purchasing baby food!  I mentioned this to the children, and they knew immediately this was what they wanted to do.  Every child brought in wrapped jars of baby food, which were delivered to The Storehouse to be given to the hungry infants in our community.

In January, the children asked if they could continue this project.  They knew that babies were not just hungry during the holidays.  One of the boys emphasized, “The babies don’t have a choice.  They are poor because their parents are poor.  We need to feed the babies.”

We set a goal of how many jars we thought we could donate each month. I integrated sorting, counting and graphing jars of food into our math curriculum.  The children were able to collect 750 jars of food that year.  That class wanted to continue collecting food the next year, so they invited new classmates to join us.  We doubled our donation to 1500 jars of baby food.  During the third year of the project, students began writing letters to local businesses.  With business donations, we were able to give 3000 jars of baby food to The Storehouse.  This service learning project continued to flourish at our school.  We were able to donate 6000 jars of food during each of the next four years.

In 2009, donations began to dwindle due to changes in the economy.  My Kindergarten students were concerned about the need to feed the hungry babies.  We decided to write and illustrate a book to share with Kindergarten classrooms in our district.  The children believed that developing an awareness of this problem would generate a solution.

At the same time, I heard about the Scholastic BE BIG In Your Community Contest.  We entered the contest, as our Baby Food Drive exemplified 8 of Clifford’s 10 Big Ideas.  The Baby Food Drive is an excellent and much needed avenue for 5 and 6 year old children to make a huge difference in their community.  The children believed that we would win, but felt that the more important part of entering the contest was to get the word out that we need to feed the hungry babies in our nation.  Now, we are asking for your help!

Hunger in America is a real problem, but one that has an easy fix. If every student donated three jars of baby food each month, we could end infant hunger in America. Adding hunger awareness and service learning opportunities that focus on youth hunger to your lesson plans is easy and has a great pay off for your students and community!

Posted in Volunteerism | 2 Comments »

Tips For Community Engagement in Rural and Urban Communities

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

On March 23, the Points of Light Blog asked questions about what makes a group of people a community and what is it about a community of people that makes them successful as a group of volunteers?

We’ve talked about technology communities and how communities can support individuals’ action. Today, we’re going to look at some differences between communities in rural and urban settings.

While we mentioned that with the rise of communication technology, community is no longer restricted strictly by geography, geography still plays a role in how communities come together. Rural communities can be different than urban communities simply by virtue of the type of life that happens in them. If you’re approaching members of these communities about volunteer opportunities, here are some thing to keep in mind:

Rural Communities

  • Take it slow and easy; don’t barge right in. Take the time to get to know the community and its members.
  • Find someone who can introduce you to other community members, you’ll get farther with their help than you will on your own.
  • Community meetings and one-on-one asks can be effective methods for recruiting volunteers.

Urban Communities

  • Make sure staff have worked with the community or have taken the time to get to know the community.
  • Focus on direct messages-don’t run around the subject.
  • Use the internet, email, and other forms of outreach together

There are tips that work in urban and rural communities when it comes to engaging a community. They include:

  • Knowing your objectives and your time frame for action.
  • Getting to know the community before reaching out to them.
  • Know who the influential members and opinion leaders are for the community.
  • Listen to the community members.
  • Be flexible and able to adjust your ask on the fly.

Ultimately, whether you’re approaching an urban or a rural community, they’ll want to know what’s in it for them. Why should they support your feral cat TNR program? What’s so great about a youth mentoring program? Why should they take part of their free time and spend it collecting canned goods? Being able to answer the “what’s in it for us?” question is probably the most important part of approaching different communities for volunteers.

Have you had to recruit volunteers from different communities? Did you have to adjust your approach because of it? What did you learn from doing outreach to different communities? Let us know in the comments!

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Posted in Mobilize, Volunteer Recruitment | No Comments »

All Together Now – A Tribute to President George H.W. Bush

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Today’s post comes from Chris Golden, Executive Director and co-founder of myImpact.org

It is protocol that whenever a president of the United States enters or exits a room the audience rises for a standing ovation.

Last Monday night, the sold-out crowd at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington conformed to this ritual- for four former presidents.

It was an extraordinary privilege to be in attendance at the event, honoring President George H. W. Bush and his commitment and legacy of service. The one-hour primetime television special, “All Together Now,” will air tonight on NBC at 8pm EDT.

Service is a timeless American tradition. The idea of neighbors helping neighbors is embodied in our national ethos and exemplified throughout our history. From the founding of the Republic to the establishment of the American Red Cross as a nurse’s corps during the Civil War. From the Civilian Conservation Corps established during the Great Depression to the USA Citizens Corps established after 9/11, the strength of America’s volunteers has defined our country in times of struggle and in times of prosperity.

This spirit was captured in President Bush’s inaugural address when he said, “I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good.”

And in addition to recognizing the Presidents for their common legacies of service, the Tribute ceremony also recognized average Americans, these points of light, shining in their communities that make up the patchwork of our nation.

Their stories, as told by the men who are our modern leaders, are inspiring reminders of the power of individual civic action. How everyday citizens are doing extraordinary things, solving problems in their communities-developing solutions that can be scaled to national results.

Whenever four presidents are in the same room, history is written.

And it is important that we not let this moment in our history pass by. Instead, we must use it as a call to action, to renew our commitments to each other, and our communities as active, engaged citizen leaders. There are many ways to become involved- a good place to begin is with the resources of the Points of Light Institute and Hands On Network.

Even in this time of challenge and uncertainty, it is worth remembering the often silent heroes of our time- the City Year corps member giving a year of their life to serve in an improvised high school, the community leader organizing an environmental clean up, or the RSVP volunteer demonstrating that even after a lifetime career, there is still more to give.

When you stop and think about the impact they are having, it’s worthy of a standing ovation.

Chris Golden is the Executive Director and co-founder of myImpact.org, an online platform for volunteers to record, share and track their impact online, through social media.

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A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer’s Story, Part 4

Friday, March 25th, 2011

volunteer volunteerism, volunteering, teicher, rpcvToday’s blog post comes from Perry Teicher, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Kazakhstan from 2007-2009.  This is the fourth of five posts about his Peace Corps service.  Be sure to read the first, second and third posts.

Kazakhstan has an incredibly high incidence rate of Cerebral Palsy.  According to the Kazakhstan Ministry of Health, over 10,000 children in the country have this disease.  Many factors may have led to this situation, including poor nutrition habits, Soviet nuclear testing, and a deteriorating and often corrupt healthcare system.  As a result, the “Society for the Protection of Paralyzed Citizens of Aktobe” worked extensively with this group and their parents, as well as children and young adults with other types of physical and psychological disabilities.

For the past few years, the organization supported these kids and their families primarily by throwing holiday parties and giving gifts.  Working with the Volunteer Club: DAR, we re-imagined what more could be done to support this group.  Kazakhs are traditionally a nomadic people and have a very strong connection with horses.  Having heard of the benefits of hippotherapy, we decided to pursue this  tack.

volunteer, volunteering, volunteerism, hippotherapy, rpcvStarting with one participant – Yan – over 10 children eventually participated in our riding program.  Over the course of the months, parents started noticing changes in their children; ranging from becoming more outgoing to better posture.  In addition to the parents and riders, our volunteer played a role, learning how to work with horses and learning basic therapeutic techniques.

Unfortunately, due to the Kazakhstani weather and funding issues, the program is temporarily on hiatus, but I hope that with Spring and new energy, riding will pick up again and more children and their parents will be smiling soon.

A program that is still running and continuing to show benefits is the English Club, in Aktobe, Kazakhstan.  It demonstrates that good students strive for knowledge and to teach and learn from others.  A few years ago, Peace Corps Volunteers started an Aktobe English Club.  The Volunteers left and the English Club remained.  Former students started to organize the weekly meetings.  When my group of Peace Corps Volunteers arrived, we were immediately accepted into the club, starting with an Academic Quiz Bowl during our first day in the city.  Through today, a Kazakhstani student and Peace Corps Volunteer teamed up to plan each week’s events – including themed, interactive lessons, movie clubs, academic marathons, and speakers.

As I traveled throughout the rest of Kazakhstan, Central Asia, and the Caucuses, the breadth of English Clubs simply amazed me.  In rural mountain towns connected only by dirt roads to urban centers of totalitarian countries, students organized opportunities to come together, learn, and speak English.  Even more interesting is the use of these clubs as a method of promoting critical thinking skills.  While the formal educational systems in many of these countries promotes rote learning, these self-taught clubs challenged students to analyze and thinking creatively.

In Aktobe, Damesh, a second-year university student at the time, started coming to the English Club as a participant.  She spoke excellent English but was a little shy, with no apparent interest in standing in front of the group.  Within a few weeks, Damesh started to lead English Clubs.  Then, she began to volunteer with the local organization focused on creating an environment where people with disabilities could lead independent lives.  Three years later, she is enrolled in a Master’s program at a major university in the capital, teaching undergraduate students, and a regular source of inspiration for aspiring volunteers.

Perry Teicher is the Repair the World Fellow, 2010-2011.  He served in Peace Corps Kazakhstan (2007-2009).  Feel free to e-mail him at .

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Do You Feel Like You’re Guilty of Slacktivism?

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

Today’s post comes from Cher Hale, a student and activist in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Do you feel like you aren’t doing enough to make a difference in this world?

Maybe you’re one of those people that are aware of injustice, but you just can’t seem to bring yourself to do anything about it.

Then, you start to feel guilty.

Man, you think to yourself as you eat a hamburger, those cows must be sad being stuffed with corn they don’t even like all day.

You might say as you go shopping, Wow. I’m buying these pants made in Malaysia by sweatshop workers in unlivable conditions.

But, you volunteer occasionally.

You educate yourself by skimming through articles.

You tell your friends about this crazy world we all live in even if they look at you with apathetic faces.

You care.

You’re just not sure what to do next.

Thinking about these social injustices that have been present on our planet for years before you were born is heavy.

You cannot feel guilty for not immediately changing your lifestyle because making a difference in this world through activism is a personal journey.

You’re not going to be instantly infused with all of the resources, inspiration, and know-how to create social change from the beginning.

It’s easy to learn about a social cause like bad sweatshop conditions, get really upset, and vow to start a foundation in your quest to rid the world of its vermin-like nature.

Yes, dreaming big is beautiful, and there should always be dreams like these in the back of your mind, nudging you forward on your journey.

But, you’ll start to see real change if you begin with your neighborhood.

Then, you can expand to your community.

Show your friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances what an activist looks like.

Even if they don’t tell you directly, you are making a positive impact on them.

You are being a leader for change.

Once you make the decision to create a better community for yourself and those around you, you will begin to notice a shift in your thinking.

You say, How could I possibly shop at this store connected to a large corporation that exploits workers with no other choices of employment?

You declare to yourself and to your best friend, I’m no longer going to eat beef because of the horrible conditions in factory farms. I’m interested in saving the next generation from being served antibiotics and hormones on their clean, white plates in restaurant chains.

You are evolving into an activist in your every day life.

Start local, find the issue you’re most passionate about, educate yourself in full detail, connect with like-minded individuals and expand.

Review your accomplishments, and repeat until you have the attention of the country.

Cher is a student and local activist in Las Vegas, Nevada that believes in connecting to make a positive impact on the world. She writes for her blog Cher Love Now

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Posted in Voice of Change | 1 Comment »

Using Technology Communities As A Source Of Volunters

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Today’s post comes from Michael Nealis, Interactive Strategy Coordinator for Points of Light Institute.

I am a member of a community. Many communities, actually.

I live in a neighborhood in a city where neighborhood identities are strong. I work with a group of people who believe that volunteering is an important part of citizenship. I am a volunteer. I’m an AmeriCorps Alum.

I really like technology. I play a game with thousands of people across the world. I have Facebook friends across the country. I follow people on Twitter from around the world.

All of these communities, virtual and real-life, are sources of identity for the individuals that belong to them, in addition to a potential source for volunteers.

Technology communities are a great source of volunteers for nonprofits, especially for organizations that need technology help.

Recruiting volunteers from technology communities isn’t too much different than recruiting volunteers from the community around a nonprofit. Best practices that work for traditional communities work just as well for technology communities.

To focus on technology communities, you should target your recruitment efforts to the places where those communities come together. Posting a flyer in your community center may be an effective recruitment tool for traditional volunteers, but probably won’t work as well for recruiting from technology communities.

Just like for traditional volunteers, your recruitment message for technology volunteers should be targeted to where those volunteers are. Posting opportunities on online volunteer recruitment sites and other places where the volunteers you’re looking for come together online are good ways to bring attention to your organization’s technology needs.

In addition, there are methods for recruiting technology volunteers that won’t work as well for traditional volunteers. Online platforms for supporting technology volunteer projects like Sparked are great ways to bring technology volunteers into your nonprofit.

Sparked provides a place where nonprofits can post small, digitally-based volunteer opportunities that can be done in a small amount of time. These opportunities aren’t just computer-based; many of the opportunities can be done on a smart phone, so time spent waiting in line at the grocery store can turn into time helping to improve a user’s experience with a nonprofit’s website.

Technology volunteers don’t have to be web-based volunteers. They can be volunteers that help to manage the technology infrastructure at your organization. Recruiting these volunteers isn’t any different than recruiting traditional or web-based volunteers. The same best practices that work for traditional volunteer opportunities apply to these volunteers.

What methods have worked best to help your organization to recruit technology based volunteers? Let us know in the comments!

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Posted in Technology, Volunteer Recruitment | 1 Comment »

How Community Supports Individual Action

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

When we talk about community here on the HandsOn blog, what we usually mean is a group of people connected by geography. We talk about the people who live in the same city or the same neighborhood.

Community isn’t restricted to geography, though.

Communities can be tied together by a common interest. Increasingly, communities are seated in technology rather than geography. The internet is a phenomenal tool for people with similar interests to find one another and have shared experiences that let them create a sense of community.

Are communities required to produce change?

An individual can affect someone by being a mentor, or can clean up a park by themselves, or tutor students on their own. Groups of individuals, though, coming together for the shared purpose of helping youth or improving their environment are able to accomplish more than the individuals alone.

A sense of community helps to support the engaged individual and the work that they are doing.

How do communities come together to do this? What happens when someone wants to bring a group of people together to clean a park instead of doing it on their own?

Lets say that they put a notice up in places in their neighborhood-at the park, in the library, in the grocery store-asking people to come together to talk about cleaning the park. People come to the meeting as strangers, maybe they bring a friend with them, and are driven by individual needs. Everyone comes together by virtue of their location and spends time together planning the clean up event.

After the logistics of the event are worked out, the clean up day comes and everyone comes together at the park. As they work together, they achieve their goal (a clean park) and the group members gain a shared status of people working together to make their neighborhood better. After a few more projects, members of the group bring in their friends and the group grows in size.

Communities come together based on individual needs, but become bound by location and contact between individuals. Shared experience and investment in the group help to make individual bonds stronger, and so does the sense of status that surrounds membership in a group.

Community helps to improve and support the work of individuals. A community helps to support its members and brings together a set of shared resources that makes the community more able to act and have an impact than the individual could on their own. A community of people is stronger and more able to have influence than any individual member of that community.

 

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